NAPARIMA COLLEGE
FOREVER
Some Notes on the Canadian Mission to Trinidad, XIIc
Regional Offshoots of the Canadian Mission to Trinidad: St Lucia
Mr. J. B. Cropper, then employed as Protector of Immigrants in the island's colonial government office, was a key contact in St Lucia and helped greatly to establish and support the Mission there. He subsequently removed to the British Guiana mission in 1896, having been inspired by Rev. Morton and his work with the Mission in St Lucia to study for the ministry at Pine Hill in Nova Scotia.
Rev. Morton visited the island of St Lucia as early as 1883, when the Indian population was about 1,300. St. Lucia was visited afterward by several of the Canadian missionaries in Trinidad. In 1885, the first native Trinidad catechist was sent to the island.
The 1891 census numbered 2523 Indians, of whom about one-fifth eventually responded to the Mission. By 1900, there were four Canadian Mission schools, to which the St Lucia government contributed £150 stg. annually.
Overall, the work in St Lucia was directed by Rev. Morton, with the help of Lal Behari, and others of the Tunapuna group, and it was modelled closely on the Trinidad mission.
During the early 1900's, with a reduced demand for sugar-cane, the East Indian population began to diminish to about a half of its peak population, through repatriation and migration to other islands. By 1917, only one school at Forestiere remained open; and the missionary effort was transferred to the Wesleyan Church.
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